Optimum Health Resources Lab

[sagemoon]

Has anyone else had a problem with Optimum Health Resources Lab? I paid for and submitted my samples for the 96 food allergy test back in June and have never received my results nor can get any response from my queries.

[Guest Kathy Ann]

Wow! That's not good. I ended up getting everything I paid for, but when they say it takes 6 weeks, they mean it! There was no hurrying them along. Their explanation was that they were swamped with orders. But to honestly not have gotten your report or a reply to your inquiries is definitely NOT OK. Have you called them?

I am happy that I did the test, but wish I had understood a little better what it actually meant with regard to my celiac testing at the time. The ELISA test didn't agree with my enterolab or saliva tests in some instances. I found that confusing. I called and they explained it OK, I guess.

I'm sure this is just a misunderstanding, but I certainly would pursue it vigorously. Those tests aren't cheap! York (Optimum Health Resources) is SUPPOSED to be the best. That's why I chose them. I'm sure you will get this resolved. The worst thing is that it literally got lost and you will have to do it over again. But I can't think of any excuse for not responding to your inquiries. I'd call.

[mythreesuns]

I paid for and submitted my samples for the 96 food allergy test back in June and have never received my results nor can get any response from my queries.

This is one of the reasons I went with EnteroLab instead of Optimum. I've heard many stories like yours.

The other reason I went with EnteroLab is because I wanted more detailed information (if only on a few foods rather than the whole 96) and I also wanted the gene tests.

Regardless, someone ought to call the Better Business Bureau on these guys! Try a certified letter cc'd to a lawyer (even if you don't have one!) LOL

[sagemoon]

Wow! That's not good. I ended up getting everything I paid for, but when they say it takes 6 weeks, they mean it! There was no hurrying them along. Their explanation was that they were swamped with orders. But to honestly not have gotten your report or a reply to your inquiries is definitely NOT OK. Have you called them?

I am happy that I did the test, but wish I had understood a little better what it actually meant with regard to my celiac testing at the time. The ELISA test didn't agree with my enterolab or saliva tests in some instances. I found that confusing. I called and they explained it OK, I guess.

I'm sure this is just a misunderstanding, but I certainly would pursue it vigorously. Those tests aren't cheap! York (Optimum Health Resources) is SUPPOSED to be the best. That's why I chose them. I'm sure you will get this resolved. The worst thing is that it literally got lost and you will have to do it over again. But I can't think of any excuse for not responding to your inquiries. I'd call.

I have called and emailed repeatedly, all numbers and email addresses given on the website since the beginning of August. I get the answering machine or nothing at all via email. I know the email addresses are correct since I did get an automated 'office closed' answer when the hurricane went through their area. I reported this issue to Scott, just to let him know about it since I am not blaming him for a sponsor's actions (nonactions) whatsoever. He forwarded that email to OHR, but I still haven't heard a thing. I think the Certified Letter is my next step. This whole thing is giving me a headache. After being misdiagnosed for so many years, it is so important to me to get the 'rest of the story'.

[Guest Kathy Ann]

I admit that many of my calls went unanswered as well. I guess I was fortunate to get them at all from the sounds of it. I was always calling to see if I could speed them up since I was so sick at the time. What a shame they can't get their act together. They are a company based in the UK. I wonder if it is a problem with the entire company or just here in the States?

I hope you either get test results or all your money back. I will sure be careful not to recommend them anymore.

Honestly, I agree that my enterolab tests were also MUCH more meaningful and valuable to me. Even though all the other little individual foods I have "acquired" allergies to that showed up on the ELISA test do matter, I think the big protein allergies like gluten, dairy, soy and eggs are far more significant. And enterolab does all of them I'm pretty sure.

[sagemoon]

I just filed a complaint against Optimum Health Resource Labs (York Labs) with the Better Business Bureau via their online website. I'll let you know what happens. Thanks for the support.

[Nevadan]

I had a similar bad experience with York Labs about one year ago. Very poor customer service, and I never did get any of that "one year support" they advertised to help me understand the meaning of their tests. Also for what it's worth my results included what appeared to be (by food challenge) several false positives.

Sagemoon, good luck with your BBB complaint.

[Guest Kathy Ann]

I forgot about that part. I didn't get any of that free support either. And I had ALOT of questions. They would hardly talk when I did get ahold of them. I tested positive for radishes, kidney beans and sesame seeds which I NEVER eat. I bet I haven't eaten radishes for 25 years. Is that what you observed when you said false positives? I would sure be disappointed to think that I had wasted over $300 and can't even trust the results.

[Nevadan]

I forgot about that part. I didn't get any of that free support either. And I had ALOT of questions. They would hardly talk when I did get ahold of them. I tested positive for radishes, kidney beans and sesame seeds which I NEVER eat. I bet I haven't eaten radishes for 25 years. Is that what you observed when you said false positives? I would sure be disappointed to think that I had wasted over $300 and can't even trust the results.

Yep, my false positives were similar to your experience. Makes one wonder how many false negatives there were. I also thought their "96 Food" testing was a little misleading in that there appeared to be some redundancies (e.g. wheat gliadin, wheat gluten, whole wheat were 3 of the 96 tests). I could not get them to comment on this.

[Guest Kathy Ann]

[sspitzer5]

Has anyone else had a problem with Optimum Health Resources Lab? I paid for and submitted my samples for the 96 food allergy test back in June and have never received my results nor can get any response from my queries.

Yes! I had the same problem. It took forever to get my results back. I had to call multiple times. I was eventually told that they lost my batch, but they did finally find it and send the results to me. I found the test results very helpful though. I didn't get many positives and the things that were positive seem to really have been problems.

S

[JenKuz]

I started out with a saliva test that surprised me with allergies to 3 major things: gliadin, egg whites and casein. I did the ELISA next and gliadin came up normal, egg whites came up normal and casein was normal as well. I did show sensitivity to other parts of dairy and to wheat, but it all just seemed to contradict the saliva test. When I asked them, they praised the high accuracy of most saliva tests, but said that IgA and IgG are two different reactions in the body and that's the reason for the contradictions. I guess that's possible, but I went away pretty confused. I still am. Then I did the enterolab test and was definitely celiac according to them and also showed a dairy intolerance. You can see why my doctor hasn't been too impressed with my tests.

I wonder if anyone else has had experience with their ELISA test being really accurate, even if it was done at another lab?

When I looked into the test from York, all the information I found praised its accuracy. That's why I finally decided it would be a valuable test to have. Now I don't know what to think of it. Pretty disgusting if it is all wrong. The good news would be if I actually can have some of those foods the test said I couldn't. That wouldn't brighten my day considerably!

oops. I mean WOULD brighten my day considerably!

I know lots of people on here have relied on the IgG tests for identifying food allergies, but I have to say, I think the immunologic basis for such tests is pretty poor. We make IgG to basically every food we've ever eaten. The foods we eat most of show up most, which is why so many people have high IgG for dairy, soy, corn and wheat. But IgG is a general antibody. For most of these foods, the T cells that are specific for their amino acid markers have been "anergized," or activated. This is how the body learns, from young ages, to distinguish food from enteric infections. Obviously, it's not a perfect process; for some foods, the body doesn't inactivate all the specific immune cells, and further immunologic responses follow. The IgE (defined as the "only" marker for actual allergy, i.e. a histamine response) is one way to test whether this has happened. But an allergic response isn't a part of all food intolerances, any more than we develop allergies to all bacteria; on top of this, some allergies may involve other antibodies. The IgA tests are new on the scene, for food proteins, but have some promise. That's why Enterolab tests are reliable, while the IgG tests aren't very good at all. As many have said, the IgG tests result in many, many false positives (probably not so many false negatives).

Many doctors are still skeptical about the IgA tests, but there's a sound reason to trust them. Eosinophils, basophils and neutrophils are the immune cells involved in allergic reactions. They have receptors for IgA. Though these are not generally as strong as the receptors for IgE, these cells can still be activated to release histamine by IgA antibodies. Now, IgE is an antibody found in the blood, while IgA is the antibody found in mucosal tissues, such as the gut. Therefore, allergic activity could be taking place from IgA alone. That's why Dr. Fine's tests make good immunologic sense, even if the data hasn't been published yet, while the IgG tests don't make much sense at all, unless you are using them *only* as a guide for elimination diet testing.

[sagemoon]

Hi All,

I filed my complaint with the BBB on Wednesday last week, received an acknowledgment from them on Thursday that they had started to work on the case against OHR Labs and by Friday evening I had received an urgent email from OHR with my results attached. The document shows they received my test kit on June 28 and processed it Sep 5. They advertised it would take up to 6 weeks to process, they processed it in 10 weeks and then sat on the results for 5 1/2 weeks longer until the BBB knocked on their door, ignoring any correspondence on my part. I don't think they recorded the test kit as received on the proper day either, since my records show they received it on June 12.

All in all, what a disappointing experience and I do not think it would have been resolved if I hadn't have pushed the issue all the way to the BBB. From the thread in this message group, I can see that it is basically business as usual. I wanted to send in a test for my husband as well, but thankfully I decided to wait to see if the results seemed worth the money before I submitted another. Very glad I held off. Is Enterolab my next best choice, do you think?

I am retesting with another lab to corroborate their results as well, I just don't feel like I can trust them. I am going to another topic - Other intolerances - from the main board to ask about my new found allergies, specifically eggs and dairy - milks and yogurt but not cheddar cheese, what's that all about and what is broken on that food chain to allow me cheddar? Let me repeat something that I read over and over in all of these message boards - THAT'S CONFUSING!!

Thanks for listening

[kimjoy24]

I unfortunately had the same negative experience with Optimum. I posted about it on here a couple of months ago. I waited I believe twelve weeks in total, and had to fax a threatening letter to them, stating that I would report them to the BBB if I did not receive my results, before the results finally surfaced. This was after numerous phone calls and emails. These tests aren't cheap and while I can understand maybe a slight delay over the advertised six weeks I really thought twice that long was false advertising.

I'm also not sure if I trust the results. I tested on the high-end of moderate for egg whites. Egg allergies seem to have a pretty standard set of symptoms, especially when experienced by adults, and I have never had these symptons when eating eggs, which previous to the test I ate about twice a week. I plan on going back to Enterolab (which I had an excellent experience with) to be re-tested for eggs.

I would not recommend Optimum to anyone until I hear via the Celiac community that they actually have their act together.

[sagemoon]

Thanks for your input, Joy. I hope eveyone who reads this bulletin board heeds our warning about OHR. Buyer Beware!!

Oh, and the egg thing has me flummoxed as well. Not happy about it at all. Retesting elsewhere this week.

[AndreaB]

Ann,

Just noticed that you are near Seattle.

My doctor in Vancouver WA used US Biotek for ELISA Intolerance Testing.

I don't know if they process tests from individuals.

Open Original Shared Link if you want to look through their website.

Enterolab tests for gluten, dairy, soy, egg and yeast.

I am low intolerant and low allergic to dairy, except cheddar cheese as well. I don't eat any dairy anymore. I was confused by that too. I figured the aging process may have had something to do with it, but I don't know.

[Guest Kathy Ann]

Kimjoy,

What are the standard adult symptoms for egg allergies? If you test positive for an egg white allergy, is it practical to try to eat the yolks? Or is it too hard to separate them completely?

[kimjoy24]

Kimjoy,

What are the standard adult symptoms for egg allergies? If you test positive for an egg white allergy, is it practical to try to eat the yolks? Or is it too hard to separate them completely?

Most people react to the egg whites, not the yolk, from what little research I have done so far tells me. Therefore, some people can eat the yolk even if they have a true egg white allergy. I guess the issue of separating the two would depend upon your level of reaction to the egg whites. I also do not know if egg allergies can cause long-term internal damage like we know gluten does to our bodies.

From what I've gathered so far in my research, the symptoms tend to be more upper respiratory or skin-related in nature, like difficulty breathing or hives instead of GI though that is still a possibility.

[ArtGirl]

From what I've gathered so far in my research, the symptoms tend to be more upper respiratory or skin-related in nature, like difficulty breathing or hives instead of GI though that is still a possibility.

My husband is sensitive to egg yolks, I am sensitive more to the whites, but also the yolks. His symptoms are like hayfever, runny nose/stuffy sinuses. I'm not sure what my symptoms are - still sorting that one out, but I don't have upper respiratory symptoms for any of my food sensitivities - all are GI or emotional (i.e.: irritability).

[sagemoon]

OHR refunded my money. I turned around and ordered a complete panel from Enterolab. I was only going to retest for the dairy and egg responses, but I spent last night heaving my guts out, so I am ordering the gluten tests as well to see if I have been glutened. I am so careful with what I eat, but today I am looking into other things that I did yesterday as well, like I used a lot of lip gloss because I had appointments and also used a teeth bleaching solution. Perhaps I am poisoning myself there and don't know it. Anybody have issues with lipstick/gloss with Vitamin E added? I think they may derive it from wheat germ oil. Man, I am beat this morning.

Hi Andrea,

Thanks for the link, I looked into US Biotek and from what I can tell from their website they only do tests via physicians. I went ahead and ordered tests through Enterolab. I read all of your family's intolerances, boy, you sure can't go out for a meal. I am getting my husband tested with me this time, so it should be interesting to find out what we are limited to as a pair. As I read this bulletin board, I find it amazing that food intolerance testing isn't a required test for everybody - part of their first school physical.

[AndreaB]

Ann,

Please let us know what your results are from Enterolab when you get them.

Also, if you want to come down to see my doctor in Vancouver let me know. He's a MD that has branched out into intolerances and mercury toxicity. He would probably be considered midline since he's between mainline and holistic practices. He and his wife are looking to open up a lifestyle center to have people come to to learn how to cook with foods they can still eat. Sounds interesting.